- Xiaomi has updated the range of its Poco and Redmi brands
- Poco X7 and Redmi Note 14 Pro families focus on offering specific flagship features at a low price
- A Xiaomi spokesperson described this strategy as “democratizing” flagship features.
Xiaomi has revealed a range of new budget and mid-range smartphones under its Poco and Redmi sub-brands, with a total of six new models hitting the UK market in the coming weeks.
The Poco X7 and Poco X7 Pro are the most powerful of the bunch; Both have been designed with gaming and sustained performance in mind, and feature sporty black and yellow color options, with the Poco X7 Pro featuring a soft-touch PU leather back panel.
The Poco The Poco X7 Pro moves to the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset and loses the macro camera. Both phones feature a 20MP selfie camera.
The two new Poco phones also feature a 6.67-inch 1.5K display, with the X7 using a curved design and the X7 Pro featuring a flatter profile, more akin to modern flagships. As for the battery, the X7 features a 5,110 mAh cell with 45W wired charging, while the X7 Pro uses a 6,000 mAh split battery with up to 90W fast wired charging.
The Poco X7 starts at £249 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and the X7 Pro starts at £309 for the same configuration.
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Xiaomi’s other new budget phone lineup is the Redmi Note 14 series, which comprises five models. The Note 14 comes as a single 4G-enabled version; the Note 14 Pro comes in a lower-spec 5G and 4G variant; and the higher-end Note 14 Pro Plus comes as a single 5G-enabled version.
The Note 14 Pro Plus is the most technically capable of the new Redmi models, with a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, a 6.67-inch, 120Hz, 1.5k curved display, and a 5,110 mAh battery that supports impressive speed. 120W wired charging. The phone also comes equipped with a 200MP main camera with optical image stabilization that allows up to 4x zoom through sensor cropping and a digital zoom up to 30x.
The Note 14 Pro 5G and its less powerful 4G version have the same 200MP camera. The 5G version has the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, while the 4G version has the MediaTek Helio G100-Ultra chipset. Both phones come equipped with a 6.67-inch 1.5K curved display.
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As for the base Note 14 model, the phone has a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, a 108MP camera, and a 6.67-inch 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED flat display.
The Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus starts at £399, the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G at £299 and the Redmi Note 14 Pro 4G at £249; they all start with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. The base model Redmi Note 14 starts at £179 for 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Personally, I can see parallels between Xiaomi’s strategy and that of Samsung’s A-series budget phones, which are among the best cheap phones out there. Like Samsung, Xiaomi’s updated range of devices features incremental performance increases to suit a wide range of needs and budgets.
Xiaomi’s lack of presence in the US and relative lack of influence in the UK will hamper any chance of achieving this. In fact take the fight to Samsung, but the inclusion of high-resolution cameras and huge batteries with fast charging at these low prices should make the South Korean giant look over its shoulder.
democratize iconic features
At an official pre-launch event, a Xiaomi spokesperson told TechRadar about the approach behind bringing flagship features, such as 6,000mAh batteries and 50MP large-aperture cameras, to the company’s budget-level models.
“What we’re looking for when we talk about democratizing features is to make sure we continue to offer a great experience for our valued customers and for customers who may not be able to afford our premium flagship devices,” the spokesperson explained.
They added: “For example, wireless charging is not something we have on Redmi devices. “We have that on our Xiaomi devices, but we still offer 120W hypercharging on the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus.”
“It will be about what the pricing structure is for the device,” the spokesperson added, “we look at the device and what the price is, and what we can do within that price for consumers.” […] The other point is user comments. “We look on social media, we have our own Xiaomi fans that we talk to directly, that helps us with direction, and that’s something we’ve done since the beginning of Xiaomi.”
If these new budget phones prove to be capable phones, we could be looking at some new additions to our list of the best Xiaomi phones. For the latest updates, be sure to check out our dedicated Xiaomi phone coverage.
